The second #ActInSpace event will bring together young entrepreneurs, students, business leaders, developers, artists, and jobseekers to take part in a one-and-a-half-day-hackathon on Friday and Saturday, 20-21 May 2016. The aim of the #ActInSpace event is to come up with innovative ways to use space technologies for everyday uses. In …
Read More »Daesh wages war against satellite television in Mosul
As the Iraqi army inches closer to the Daesh-occupied city of Mosul, the extremist group is now banning the sale of satellite television receivers to the city’s residents, and confiscating receivers from cafés, restaurants, and other public spaces. These developments, reported by the news agency Reuters, are the latest in …
Read More »India’s IRNSS gives Middle East new SatNav option
The successful launch on 28 April 2016 of the seventh satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) means that the Middle East region will soon have a supplementary, or even alternative, satellite navigation saystem to the American Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia’s GLONASS, and Europe’s Galileo. The satellite, …
Read More »Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030: A Golden Opportunity for Space?
ThorGroup’s Chairman and President, Dr. John B. Sheldon, explores the role of space in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 recently announced economic and social reform programme. He argues that Vision 2030 is a golden opportunity for Saudi Arabian space. Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman and Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, …
Read More »China to launch core module of its space station in 2018
China has announced that it intends to launch the core module of its space station by 2018, with the aim of having the manned space-based facility operational by around 2022. A spokesman for the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Mr. Wang Zhongyang, told Xinhua News Agency that the core …
Read More »Turkey and Ukraine to cooperate on building satellites
In a clear reaction to collapsed relations with the Russian Federation, both Turkey and Ukraine have announced their intention to cooperate with each other in the development and manufacture of satellites, as well as collaboration on other strategic technologies. The announcement has come as a surprise to analysts, many of …
Read More »Social media app Telegram deletes Yemen’s Houthi-backed Al-Masirah TV
The social media app and website Telegram has deleted the channel used by Yemen’s Al-Masirah satellite television station, an entity thought to be affiliated with the Houthi’s, who are fighting the Saudi Arabian-backed coalition in Yemen. The action by Telegram took place over the weekend of 16-17 April 2016, and …
Read More »Why Space? Some thoughts by Rick Tumlinson at TEDxESA 2015
At the TEDxESA event on 11 November 2015, 12 stellar speakers took the stage and presented their visions of how science takes us beyond fiction. Space is hard, so why should we go? Let Rick Tumlinson give a clear answer in this TEDxESA talk. He wants to plant a tree …
Read More »There are no borders seen from space…A beautiful picture of the Middle East taken from the ISS
There are no borders seen from space…that such beauty can be discerned from a part of the world – the Cradle of Civilization – where so much tragedy and suffering occurs is perhaps the cruelest of ironies. From space the political unrest in Egypt, the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians …
Read More »Iran signs space launch agreement with Kazakhstan
Iran and Kazakhstan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) allowing access for both countries to each other’s space launch and satellite facilities. Kazakh Minister for Investment Aset Isekeshev visited Tehran on Tuesday, 12 April 2016, and signed the MoU along with Iranian Vice-President for Scientific Affairs Sorena Sattari. According …
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